Granderson hopes to remain a Yankee beyond 2013, open to extension

Via ErikBoland & Anthony McCarron: Curtis Granderson told reporters today that he hopes to remain with the Yankees beyond next season and is open to a contract extension. “I’d be a fool not to … I’m so excited about this fourth season (with the team) and hopefully this isn’t the last one,” he said. Granderson, 32 next month, is due to become a free agent next offseason, but team policy says no contract talks until the current deal is up.

In other news, Curtis told Bryan Hoch that he is open to playing left field in deference to Brett Gardner. The team has yet to approach him about such a move, however. Granderson also said he changed up his offseason routine after talking to Ichiro Suzuki, specifically by starting to hit earlier than usual. If that gets him back to 2011/first half 2012 form, it’ll probably be Ichiro‘s biggest contribution to the Yankees.

He’s going to be 33 on opening day 2014. He’s got a lot riding on this year.

Manny’s BanWagon (formerly Andy Pettitte’s Fibula)

I’d give him 3/$42 or wish him goodbye.

No sense in paying for his declining years especially since he loses some of his value not being able to play CF.

Personally, I think he’s as gone as we all knew Swisher was last year.

Mike HC

I think Granderson has a better shot of staying than Swisher did. Not really based on anything, just a guess. Although I remember Cashman did mention a little while ago about wanting to keep both Cano and Graderson.

I think that with the strength of the system being outfielders, guys like Swisher and Granderson should be a lot easier to replace compared to a lot of other positions. Not to mention it’s usually not too difficult to pick up a corner outfielder on a short term deal.

My gut is he’s as good as gone considering they’re gonna have so many holes to fill next year and a limited amount of cast to spend.

Cris Pengiucci

“I think that with the strength of the system being outfielders, guys like Swisher and Granderson should be a lot easier to replace compared to a lot of other positions”

Agree with this completely. If one of Mason, Heathcott or Austin show enough this coming season, I think he’s as good as gone. It just seems to make sense, not that I’m endorsing it.

Need Pitching & Hitting (but mostly hitting)

It might depend a lot on what happens with Cano. If Cano doesn’t resign, the door opens much wider for Granderson. It’s doubtful they sign both Cano and Granderson and stick with the $189M budget plan. Granderson coming back would likely be contingent on either Cano leaving or the Yankees deciding to abandon the $189M goal.

LK

Gardner’s a FA after 2014. So is Ichiro, if he’s even usable by 2014. If they can sign Granderson to a reasonable contract, they should do it. You can’t count on all 3 prospects working out, and theoretically at least the entire outfield will be open within 2 years.

jjyank

I’d be down with that. If Grandy will take that and move to LF for the next four years (2013 and the 3 new years), he could definitely be worth that.

trr

I’m sure he’d like to stay, but given the current reality of team finances. does anybody relly see him us paying him Nick Swisher money?
So then the question becomes: is he trade fodder at mid-season?

jjyank

I really don’t see the Yankees as sellers. So, no.

Blake

I’ve assumed Granderson wouldn’t be back because of the budget and his age etc….but if he gives a discount Id be interested so long as the years are reasonable.

Grandy has warts by he’d probably be a plus defender in LF and 30+ homer power doesn’t grow on trees these days……we shall see

Robinson Tilapia

Someone has to play the position. We’re not going to be playing an OF all home-grown guys any time soon. This isn’t the Robbie conversation.

I think it’s entirely possible an extra two or three years at a fair value (what MBW said above sounds right) could do it. I’d be very open to this as a cushion to getting one or two of the young guys to the big leagues.

Manny’s BanWagon (formerly Andy Pettitte’s Fibula)

Something is going to have to give resigning Cano, Granderson and Hughes while replacing Kuroda, Pettitte, Youkalis and Rivera not to mention if Jeter is healthy and relatively productive, he’s not playing for $8 million.

I’d keep him on a 3 year deal but I don’t see the money being there unless Cano Walks.

pounder

Players with character as sterling as Granderson are hard to find.If he has a year or two left,I’d sign him.

emac2

Ichiro is going to come down there and kick your ass.

Robinson Tilapia

ietc

King of Fruitless Hypotheticals

We could go from #toomanyhomers to #wtf pretty quickly. I love Ichiro, and Gardner could be deadly if he tried to run more, but (insert old players or players that were not resigned that hit for power) isn’t going to drive this train much longer.

I Collect Brett Gardner Cards

ichiro’s biggest contribution thus far was hitting like .320 as a yankee.
i’ll take him hitting .280 and helping grandy strike out 10 less times.
won’t matter tho..grandy aint coming back, so lets enjoy a nice 35 homer 175 k performance from him and call it 4 years.
:)

Dicka24

2 years $30 million, or 3 years at $40-45, nothing more.

I hope the Yankees don’t overpay in term of length of contract for either Grandy or Cano. The old days of roided up players slugging till 40 are over. Post 30 teams need to realize that regression, and outright decline are going to be the norm. If Cano or Grandy expect long deals, screw em. I’d hate to lose Cano, but I think giving him an 8 year deal for $200 million would be far worse. Not to say that’s what he’ll get, or is looking for mind you. I’m just tossing those numbers out to make the point. Although I think I saw years and dollars like that mentioned on mlbtraderumors a month or two ago.

Bavarian Yankee

Mike’s Ichiro bashing is getting a bit ridiculous. What did he do to you, Mike? Are you angry that he couldn’t convince Dice-K to sign with the Yanks? j/k

Herby

Just looking at the facts. I don’t agree with Mike very often, but other than a couple weeks Ichiro wasn’t that great for the Yankees.

jjyank

Other than 6 weeks or so, he was pretty bad for most of two full seasons. I want him to succeed of course, but I’m not very optimistic about it.

Manny’s BanWagon (formerly Andy Pettitte’s Fibula)

Not buying the whole “He’s bored and unmotivated playing for a loser but will be rejuvenated playing for a winner” meme, huh?

Robinson Tilapia

It worked well for every pitcher the Yankees traded for from about 1985 to 1992.

Andy Hawkins

this

LK

There’s really no objective reason to expect Ichiro to play well. He’s had 2 bWAR and 3 fWAR over the past 2 seasons combined, and he’s going into his age 39 season. Between ZiPS, Steamer, Bill James, and Oliver, his highest projected wOBA is .304, or in other words 4 points higher than he posted last year despite playing the whole year in Yankee Stadium instead of Safeco.

LK

Sorry, that should say instead of Safeco for most of last season.

Robinson Tilapia

I’ve never seen Ichiro and Hannah the former weekend writer in the same place. Have you?

RetroRob

Granderson is patient, looking for a pitch he can drive, although pitchers adapted, pounding him with a lot of first-pitch strikes. This happened to Derek Jeter in 2010. Jeter changed his approach and went after more first-pitch strikes, which in turn altered how pitchers approached him. I expect Granderson will do the same. I mean, if the pitchers are going to lay strike one in, swing away, Curtis!

He may not have hit third straight 40-HR season, but I think there’s a decent chance his other numbers improve and he puts up a .250/.350/.500+ season with HRs somewhere in the 30 range. Strikeouts will remain an issue. They’ve been with him his entire career.

As for a new deal, I’d sign him to a three-year extension now, locking him up through the next four years. I wouldn’t go past that, since he’ll be 35 at the end.

dkidd

who knows what things will look like in six months? curtis could bounce back or regresses, slade/austin mason could bust out or flame out

unlike cano, this is a case where the yankees negotiating policy makes sense

Greg

if Andy, Kuroda and Mo retire, and if Hughes performs well enough to justify 5/75, then there isn’t room for Grandy if we sign Cano. Plus, we’ve got 3 guys waiting. Better to move to quick on a kid then to get locked into a long term deal with a declining asset.

Preston

Unless the spike in K’s last season proves to be anomalous, I would have no interest in bringing him back.

Pistol pete

BJ Upton got 5 for 75 and his numbers are not close to Granderson’s. Curtis’s career ba is a little better but his power numbers are much better. He has a lifetime ops 70 plus points higher and his ops plus is 118 versus 105 for Upton. He’s a way better clubhouse guy too. He’s not coming cheap, 5 for 75 would be fair or he’s going to free agency.

Green Manalishi

Upton’s 5 years younger.

http://riveraveblues sandyg

pettitte and rivera will retire after this year.the yankees can not let hughes,logan,joba,cano and granderson all walk and get nothing for them but a couple of draft choices.come july when the yankees are 10 games out i can see them trading these players

jjyank

All sorts of “no”.

Need Pitching & Hitting (but mostly hitting)

In the extremely unlikely event that they would be 10 games out by July, then maybe.

Preston

Additionally we’d have to be 10 games out of the second wild card which is extremely unilkely.

The Lime

Agree that it’ll be unlikely, but it wouldn’t be too far fetched if:

-Jeter regress significantly because of his age and injury
-Youk’s RH pull-power (swing revamp or not) not play well at YSIII
-Teixera continue to underwhelm
-Mo and Andy have some health issues because of their injuries and ages
-Scientists discover a black hole at the “C” position on the roster

Add it all up, and the Yankees could be 10 games behind in July. While I doubt all of these things happen, I expect some of them too. That said, perhaps we’ll be lucky with contract year performance or some bounce back years from some of the younger, disappointing players.

Jim Is Bored

See, it’s comments like this that are why those of us who aren’t negative get frustrated.

Teixiera underperforming would be no different than the last few years. Getting little to nothing out of 3B would not be that different than the 2nd half last year. We had a black hole at C last year, which people seem to forget, although I could point you to ~125 game threads where everyone hated Russel.

Andy having health issues would again, just mean our rotation will look like it did last year, except we have a chance to replace Garcia with someone else.

So no, if all those things happen, I still would bet so so so much money on us not being 10 games out of the wildcard in July.

You’re looking at ~100 games, the 2nd wildcard team is likely to have somewhere around 53 wins. To be 10 games behind a 53-47 team, we’d have to be 43-57. No, I don’t think the Yankees are going to be 43-57.

Jersey Joe

Ideally, this is what happens:

2013:
Tyler Austin has a breakout season in minors. Granderson has a slightly better year this year, but not as good as ’11. Ichiro does OK, and Gardner is back to form.

2014:
In 2014, we have Austin and Ichiro in RF
Granderson is relatively affordable, ~3/39-3/45
Gardner stays healthy.
(CoJo/Adams battle it out for 2B)

2015:
Gardner hits FA after ’14, and Mason Williams/Slade Heathcott takes over CF; the other becomes trade bait. Granderson’s role is somewhat reduced.

This is all assuming Cano and Boras are stubborn with Cashman.
I think if Cano resigns with us to a slightly reasonable price, then resigning Granderson will not be needed. In which case, we could pursue Nelson Cruz at discount price, maybe.

LK

So this would all be great, but after last year I’m curious what you think a “breakout season” would be for Austin. He was the best hitter in the system last year.

Preston

Any time a player produces at AA it’s a breakout. Because that’s when they stop being a remote possibility and start being on the fast track to the big leagues.

MartinRanger

If Cano gets a mega-deal from the Dodgers, I would not at all mind investing some of that money in a 2-3 year contract with a mutual option for Granderson for 12-15 mil per. They are going to need that power. And the odds of all three of Heathcott, Williams, and Austin working out are pretty low. Plus you could use one as trade bait. Granderson’s athletic and should be suited for LF and it’s had to get 40-homer potential anywhere these days.

That said, if Cano doesn’t get a contract longer than 6 years, I’d take him in a heartbeat.